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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Original poster

So, this is my problem with Baby Led Weaning....

27 replies

NewAgain · 31/03/2010 10:40

Dd has just turned 6m.

I have been planning on doing BLW all along because I think it sounds great.

So far, she has only managed to lick a few things and throw them on the floor.

Now I understand that this is totally normal at this stage and is kind of the whole point of BLW.

However, she seems very hungry and so I have tried her with a few veg purees just to see what she thought.

Well - she loves them! She sits there like a little birdie opening her mouth for more all the time. And she seems much more settled generally, including sleeping better at night.

Now when she sees me getting her spoon and bowl out she gets really excited! But if I leave her with just finger food, she hasn't quite worked out what to do with it yet and so would end up eating nothing when she so clearly wants to eat

OP posts:
DorotheaPlenticlew · 31/03/2010 10:43

Don't see what is wrong with doing purees if you and your LO are happy with 'em. We did them and DS has always loved his food, no probs.

Or do a combo of both -- I think tbh that's what a lot of people do/did anyway, even before BLW was devised as a thing with a name.

NB I am in no way qualified to remark on this stuff, just personal opinion

Seona1973 · 31/03/2010 11:17

I did a mix of puree and finger foods and phased out the puree as ds got better at feeding himself.

Whoamireally · 31/03/2010 13:11

I did same as Seona. I really really wanted to do BLW from the outset - but dd2 just wanted FOOD and wanted it NOW and so much easier to just shovel some in....

In a way is that not still baby led? She said she wanted food, I gave it her, when she didn't want any more she shut her mouth and that was that.

Now she is 9 months old we have finger foods at every meal anyway, so maybe we took away the sentiment of BLW, which has definitely influenced the way in which I have weaned dd2 - a lot more aware of what she is trying to tell me with regards to her food intake - without the actual doing of it IYSWIM.

I am afraid that since I reviewed (positively) the Gill Rapley book saying that we read it, liked it, thought it was pretty much essential reading if you weren't sure which way to go but at the end of the day decided it wasn't for us, and a BLW fanatic has marked my balanced review as 'unhelpful' because I said I didn't go on to do BLW I now feel justified in not doing it. Decide what's right for you and keep an open mind.

TheMysticMasseuse · 31/03/2010 13:18

Mixing purees and finger foods is absolutely fine imo. I have been told on MN that that's not "pure" BLW, though, and so assume that it somehow falls short of optimal parenting standards, but if it works for you and your baby, and you're not feeding your baby pureed turkey twizzlers and the like, what can be wrong with it?

(Incidentally, after a smooth puree-based weaning with dd1, dd2 has never allowed a spoon to pass her lips, so we were forced to do finger foods right from the beginning! So I came to BLW for practical, ratehr than ideological reasons!)

threelittlepebbles · 31/03/2010 13:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

AbiBub · 31/03/2010 23:49

Hiya

Just saw this post - don't worry, you are not the only one that doesn't get on with the ' BLW '. (such a fancy name for what I have only experienced as baby knowing what to do with it, but would rather play with it and go hungry!).

Now I have tried the BLW idea right from 6 months several times over (even tried it again yesterday) and our LO just responds to it the very same way each time!!

I noticed it made him more fussy about what he wanted to eat and actually hindered what I could try him on. IMO it works for some babies, but not all. If you feel you are getting better results the feeding on a spoon way then you do it! there is no right or wrong way to feed your baby, its just down to which way works best.

Our LO prefers us feeding him (what little he does eat, long story!)I think its because he feels reaasured that what we are giving him is safe to eat?? who knows, but you go with what you feel works best for you, and try not feel the pressures of doing it a certain way! Lets just remember that at some point they will be able to feed themselves! HOw do you think we managed it!! (aha aha!)

LaDiDaDi · 01/04/2010 00:02

What I remember doing with dd is giving her pieces of finger foods into her hand which she could then happily put into her mouth.

She found picking the food up and then getting it successfully to her mouth too tricky at first.

puffling · 01/04/2010 00:10

The fanatical of the BLWers are way too evangelical about it. I wonder what these people spend their time proselytizing about once their kids are past this phase.

Galena · 01/04/2010 22:00

DD was extremely premature so couldn't do BLW (Even Gill Rapley says it's unsuitable for prem babies). We pureed and she LOVED it. She then began loving finger foods if (and only if) I held them! She now is quite happy to feed herself, but still likes me to feed her mush (at 11 months). She tends to have 2 mush meals and 1 finger foods each day.

Mole007 · 02/04/2010 20:07

My DS is just coming up to 7 months. I also wanted to do BLW, but he has simply guzzled purees when offered, making me wonder how hungry he gets at other times! I have compromised, and do a puree -ish breakfast, with a little something to play with afterwards, a finger foods lunch and then a pureed evening meal. Depending on how hungry he is, he either 'helps' with the puree spoons or lets me shovel it in as fast as he can swallow!

tassisssss · 02/04/2010 20:10

NewAgain, go with your instinct! Your baby likes purees, you're happy to spoon feed for now, everyone's happy!

YouCantTeuchThis · 02/04/2010 20:11

surely that it truly 'baby-led'?! You can carry on giving her finger foods too - no biggy!

My experience is that she will probably end up no fussier or unable to feed herself further down the line than 'pure' blw babies...

I've done a mixture of both btw.

DinahRod · 02/04/2010 20:17

Also purees are often one very intense flavour which can be good for developing a palate, ime, having done both purees and blw for my differing dcs.

NonnoMum · 02/04/2010 20:39

BLW, like any bit of parenting advice, adapt it to suit you and your baby...
And isn't the little baby-bird mouth soooo cute...

kilo · 06/04/2010 21:09

my lo is now 9 months and it was exactly the same as you - i really wanted to do BLW and spent ages researching it, but when it came to it, he loved being spoon fed! he would open his mouth really wide and was desperate for the next mouthful! i think he just liked the fact that the food came quicker that way...so i do a mixture - breakfast is usually yoghurt or porrdge mixed with fruit, which i spoonfeed him, tea is mashed up leftovers which i spoonfed, and lunch is finger food, whatever's around. i find he's not so desperately hungry at lunch, and it works really well if we eat out during the day as he is really happy picking off my plate, and as it takes longer for him to eat i get more time for a leisurly lunch! he loves it! just DO WHAT WORKS! i decided that the most important thing is that we are both relaxed and happy when we're eating.

Bumpsadaisie · 08/04/2010 14:22

Ditto here.

My DD is just 10 months and we have done a combination of finger food and spooning it in. I'm really led by her - with her yoghurt and her morning Ready Brek she opens her mouth and wants me to spoon it in.

The rest of the time she very much wants to do it herself. So a typical meal would be pasta pesto and broccolli - would just put it unmashed in her stick down bowl and let her get on with it. After letting her have a good go I might give her a fork to have a go with that and I might see if she wants me to give her a few spoonfuls too. Sometimes she does, sometimes not (as she gets older the less she wants me involved!)

The other big part of BLW is making sure you eat with them at the same time - so its not wholly about "to spoon or not to spoon". We try as much as possible but there are inevitably some nights when DD dines in regal isolation in her high chair ...

Lulumaam · 08/04/2010 14:28

i think you need to remember, BLW is not compulsory.

lots of people do a mix of puree and finger foods. the NHS recommends finger foods too as part of weaning

if spoon feeding works then fine, if a mix works, fine. if 'pure' BLW works, fine

you don't have to justify weaning decisions to MN ( unless you are weaning at 12 weeks on wotsits and choccy buttons! )

DD loved loved loved BLW. DS adored being spoon fed and would nto have stood for faffing with finger foods

do what suits you and your baby best

no competition necessary

and yes, you aren't suposed to call it BLW if you do purees too, but if your baby is leading the way, it is technically BLW!

RubyBuckleberry · 10/04/2010 19:45

Gill Rapley says you can load up a spoon (she says a fork is better actually) and hand it to them until they can do it themselves - they need to be able to use a fork and spoon, no?

we do a mixture here. ds is loving it. i load up a fork full of lasagne or fish pie or porridge or whatever and he takes it and stuffs it in. he also takes everything else from my hand. he also is learning to grab things off the tray in front of him. he is also using two hands to eat slippery mango and pear wooohooo

loving it over here - and he is sleeping so much better!

RubyBuckleberry · 10/04/2010 19:47

if she loves the veg, can you give her brocolli trees?

missorinoco · 10/04/2010 19:55

Has successfully anyone loaded a spoon and given it to a six-monther? I define success as it seeing it consumed. I wiped, and you can make that continue to wipe at 11 months mine off the floor after giving them to DD.

I like BLW, but couldn't face BLbreastfast all over the floor, so I spoon fed breakfast, yoghurt and custard, and BLW the rest. I briefyl stressed that this was not "proper BLW" but then found something else equally silly to stress about and got over it.

She doesn't quite reach for the whole roast off the table now, but she's not far off it.

I do recall when she got going she would get frustrated at not being able to get it in fast enough, so I would sometimes spoonfeed her until she wasn't really hungry, then let her hoover up the rest.

Do what suits you.

missorinoco · 10/04/2010 19:57

Lulu, I am now wondering whether weaning at 12 weeks on wotsits and choccy buttons would be considered a worse crime on MN than doing so on Gregg's sausage rolls....?

NonnoMum · 10/04/2010 20:02

Gulped down with Fruit Shoots?

RubyBuckleberry · 10/04/2010 20:28

missorinoco, my ds is 6.5 months and eats lots of forkfulls of various things - scrambled eggs, lasagne, porridge. i load it up and he takes it and stuffs it in. we started with bits of cucumber before the easter weekend, for his gums and then once we got the high chair he was away! he has really taken to it - he is so hungry! it is such a relief because i was feeding him round the clock every 2 or 3 hours. after putting away 10 forkfulls of fishpie , he slept for six hours straight yay!

he also messes about with the food on his tray - stuffs some of it in, throws some of it about, smears houmous everywhere and then licks his fingers.

he has had steak - he sucked on that going mmm mmm mmm haha, mango, pear, green beans, satsumas, carrot, mackerel pate, avocado on toast is a big favourite - the list goes on - all by himself! i am loving it! i am sleeping four hours in a row again!

RubyBuckleberry · 10/04/2010 20:45

sorry - ds is 6 months and 5 days.

missorinoco · 10/04/2010 20:52

I am so jealous! DD eats amazingly, but has great fun using a spoon as a catapult. She seems to belive this is the best and only purpose for it. Dried in Weetabix sets like cement too....

Enjoy your sleep. After such crappy nights I found four hours in a row wass like a Christmas present!

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